The Expert's Tic Tac ToeAuthor(s): Caroline McKinneySource: The Reading Teacher, Vol. 43, No. 8, Whole Literacy (Apr., 1990), pp. 613-614Published by: Wiley on behalf of the International Reading AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20200492 .

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Examples

Math games

Our class plays math games. The teacher gives us a fact, and we have to take turns giving the answer. A hard fact will always go around the whole class before anyone can answer it. One time the teacher asked 19 + 7.1

thought I knew that one! Well, it went around the room and came to me at the end of the row. I said 16 instead of 26.

I thought to myself, "Why do I always give silly answers? I should have known that one!"

Frog and Toad

I like to read about Frog and Toad. In one story Frog and Toad were in the

garden. Toad put seeds in the ground, but they would not grow. He wanted the seeds to grow so he decided to shout at them. Then Toad thought the seeds were afraid of him. He didn't know that it takes time for seeds to grow.

lab?rate have been pleased with the im

proved sight vocabularies of their lower

performing students. I also have found this approach to be effective with readers in second and third grade who need to

acquire a larger sight vocabulary. The

approach has several advantages:

1. It provides vocabulary practice in contexts which are current and per

sonally meaningful. 2. It gives students several chances to

study each word methodically. 3. It reinforces the concept that the pur

pose of reading is to get meaning from the story.

DeSerres is a literacy specialist in the Com

pensatory Education program of the Augusta School Department, Augusta, Maine.

The dictionary game Scott Koeze

This is a game I developed for my Chap ter 1 students that teaches a number of skills. We call it The Dictionary Game.

We have played it in groups of two to five children sitting in a circle. To begin, one person selects a word that everyone knows. The person to the left gives a

word that she or he predicts will appear in the dictionary definition of that word.

Articles or prepositions are not allowed.

Play continues around the circle. A

player cannot, however, predict a word that a previous player has chosen. The

person who selected the original word

predicts last and then looks the word up

in the dictionary and reads the defini tion. A point is awarded to each player

who made a correct prediction. Suppose, for example, the word dino

saur is selected. The first player predicts reptile will appear in the definition of di nosaur. The second player predicts brontosaurus. The third says extinct. The last player, the one who chose the

word dinosaur, predicts animal. He or

she then looks up dinosaur and reads the definition. The words reptile and extinct are in the definition, so players one and three score a point. (If the player had

predicted extinction, that would count as a correct guess because it is a form of a

word in the definition.) After each round, the dictionary is

passed to the left, and that player selects a new word.

This game can be adapted for class room use. Instead of taking turns making predictions, each student writes down a

guess on a piece of paper. Thus, more than one player may predict the same

word. You may want to have a few vol unteers read their words. The definition is then read, and a point awarded for a correct prediction. The teacher can se

lect the word each time, or students can

take turns choosing words. I explain to students that just because

their words don't appear in the definition doesn't mean they aren't good guesses.

Defining a word isn't exact, and if we were using another dictionary their words might appear in that definition.

The Dictionary Game leads students to grasp what it means to define some

thing and also to think about the essen

tial meanings of specific words. It also

Practical teaching ideas

develops dictionary and reading skills.

Tve found that children love to play it.

Koeze teaches Chapter 1 students in Grafton Elementary School in Grafton, Vermont.

The expert's tie tac toe Caroline McKinney

One of the best ways to build self esteem in low readers is to give them

opportunities to be experts in their own

chosen areas of interest. Within the

reading groups I teach, these kinds of

opportunities are provided for students to share their knowledge of a particular topic of interest through the use of tic tac toe.

In the back of their writing journals, students keep an on-going list of topics about which they know a great deal. It

may be based on a personal experience, such as a trip to the emergency room, or it may involve a hobby or words they have gathered from their reading. Sev eral times during the semester, the stu dents develop vocabulary cards from these lists of words. The students origi nally write these words with invented

spellings, and later they edit them to share with the class. When the students feel confident to teach and share these

words with a friend, it is time to bring out their own tic tac toe games.

The teacher and the student should determine together when the student knows a group of words well enough to

play the game. There are many good ways to do this, and the method should be appropriate for the particular stu dent. Some suggested activities are : (a) a cloze passage that is devised by the teacher based on the child's word list, (b) a conference with the student using the words to develop questions, (c) a

story written using the words from the

list, or (d) sentence strips created by the student and teacher. These may be stud ied with another student, the teacher, or an older student. It is important to note that this game is part of a process of

learning vocabulary, and correct recog nition of words is not always possible. However, with young students or low

readers, some important concepts can be explored. For example, the child

IN THE CLASSROOM 613

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Construction paper banner for classroom

(third grader)

Michael is an expert about:

Football

player pads jersey stadium helmet uniform

goal flag coach

game tackle fumble

(second grader)

Sarah is an expert about:

Skiing

snow

hill pole boot cold lift ticket

jacket ski ice trees

gloves

may not recognize the entire word, but

he or she may remember that the word

begins with a particular sound or letter. That knowledge also needs to be recog nized and applauded.

Making the game

At the beginning of the school year, each student designs a tic tac toe board with a piece of construction paper ap

proximately 12" by 12". Strips of black

paper are then glued on to form the lines of the game, and then the board is laminated. A self-sealing plastic bag is

taped on the back to hold the vocabu

lary cards and Xs and Os made out of construction paper.

The vocabulary cards are placed face down between the players who take turns picking cards and reading them. If the student correctly identifies the

word, then he or she may place an X or

O on the board. If the student doesn't

recognize the word, the turn passes to

the other child. By seeing these words over and over, the students become fa

miliar with them. This activity can be

repeated often with different class mates. These games may also be sent home periodically for parents to play with the child. Once the child feels

good about knowing the words, he or

she may be ready to put up a banner. In our room, we hang up colorful banners with the words written on them and a

heading that proclaims, "

(student's

name) is an expert about (topic) ."

Since the child knows the words well, it is an opportunity for the young student to show off a little.

This activity has been successful with

my reading groups, but it can be

adapted for any classroom or subject area. It can be utilized at any grade level, but I have felt it was most suc

cessful with second and third graders. Older students might develop word lists

about topics such as authors, charac

ters, illustrators, historical figures, sci entific terms, or foreign language vocabulary. A final value of the game is that it is easy, flexible, and cheap!

McKinney is a Chapter 1 reading teacher at Sanchez Elementary School in Lafayette, Colorado.

Interpreting idioms Carol Wolchock

Here's a method of instruction that I have used successfully to teach idiom atic language. My third-grade class had read several Amelia Bedel?a books by Peggy Parish, so they were very famil iar with the Amelia Bedelia character.

To begin the lesson, I told the chil dren that often words do not mean ex

actly what they say. We sometimes give different meanings to these words and

phrases. I reminded them that Amelia Bedelia did not understand this, and she did exactly what she was told which of ten got her into trouble.

I then proceded to reread some exam

ples of idiomatic phrases from several of the Amelia Bedelia books. For exam

ple, when Amelia was told to "hit the road" she took a stick and did just that!

We discussed the true meanings (figura tive meanings) of these expressions and

what Amelia Bedelia thought they meant (literal meaning).

I continued the lesson by asking the children if they ever heard people use this type of language when speaking. I

gave additional examples that were not included in their reading, such as "This test was very difficult for me; I passed it

'by the skin of my teeth,"' or "Mike is 'down in the mouth' today because his father cannot take him to the basketball

game." I encouraged the children to suggest

expressions they may have heard or

read. I asked them to imagine how Amelia Bedelia would deal with these idioms if she were presented with them.

As a follow-up activity, the children were given idiomatic phrases in con text. They were to think about how

Amelia would interpret the phrases and then choose the true meaning. For ex

614 The Reading Teacher April 1990

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